other countries, this clay land was widely cultivated for
wheat and beans. So long as wheat was 60/- to 100/- a quarter it was a
very profitable crop, but, when some forty years ago it fell to 40/-
and then lower still, the land either went out of cultivation like the
"derelict" farms of Essex, or it was changed to grass land and used for
cattle grazing. Great was the distress that followed; some districts
indeed were years in recovering. But new methods came in: the land
near London was used for dairy {101} farming, and elsewhere it was
improved for grazing, and the clay districts, although completely
changed, are now more prosperous again. Many of the fields still show
the ridges or "lands" in which, when they grew wheat, they were laid up
to let the water run away, and many of them keep their old names, but
these are the only relics of the old days. The land is not, and never
was, very valuable. The roads are wide, and on either side have wide
waste strips cut up roughly by horse tracks, cart ruts and ant hills.
Bracken, gorse, rushes, thistles and brambles grow there, and you may
find many fine blackberries in September. The coarse Aira grass is
found with its leaves as rough as files. The villages are often built
round greens which serve as the village playground, where the boys and
young men now play cricket and football, and their forefathers
practised archery, played quoits and other games. On a few village
greens the Maypole can still be seen, whilst the stocks in which
offenders were placed are also left in some places.

The hedges are often high and straggling, and there are numerous woods
and plantations containing much oak. Some of the woods are very
ancient and probably form part of the primeval forests that once
largely covered England. Epping Forest in Essex, the Forest of Blean
and the King's Wood in Kent, have probably never been cultivated land.
In the days when ships were made of oak these woods and hedges were
very valuable, but now they are of little use as sources of timber.
Instead they are valued for quite another reason: they afford shelter
for foxes and for game birds. The clay districts are and always have
been famous for fox hunting; the Pytchley, Quorn, Belvoir, {102} and
other celebrated packs have their homes in the broad, clay, grassy
vales of the Midlands. The vale of Blackmoor and other clay regions
are equally famous. The plantations and hedgerows are fine places for
pri